Here’s an old illustration done in 2008. Drew this when I first arrived back in NYC. Never really posted this online too much until now. It goes perfect with the upcoming Beltane holiday, which is just around the corner, May 1st .

In my life, out of everyone I’ve met, only two or three have been completely honest. Honest with themselves, and with others. My mother was the most honest person I knew. She couldn’t lie even if she wanted to.

Well, except for one thing. She was lying to herself about how happy she was with my father.

Anyway. Due to this, I now realize I was never prepared to deal with chronic liars, or manipulators. Everything I learned in this department, was learned the hard way. I’m still learning. Being vulnerable is a dangerous place to be.

So why am I bringing this up? Recently someone asked “Do you believe everything that you’re told?” Not necessarily. I don’t believe the media. I don’t believe politicians. Hell, I don’t even believe the MTA will be running on time. You see, I’m actually quite cynical, except when it comes to matters of the heart. Playing with someone’s emotions is one of the cruelest things you can do. Nonetheless it happens every second of the day. It’s almost accepted now, as a means of survival. That’s the scariest part. As well as the saddest. Humanity is a beast. Thus the older one gets, the more illusions crumble.

The person who had asked me that question was a chronic liar himself. The trickster is not always the funniest.

Life is full of surprises. I was in the worst mood yesterday. Out of the blue, someone tagged me in a Facebook comment. A very old issue of Psycho Bunny was seen in this Open Culture article. Below is a screen shot.

Screen shot of an Open Culture Facebook link. Psycho Bunny issue two (2005) was shown in the article. April 2016.

Fellow artist and Facebook friend Norn Cutson had tagged me in a comment, and it was amazing timing.

According to the article, the University of Kansas now has acquired over a 1000 zine titles from a zine library in Lawrence, Kansas. That’s the same town where William S. Burroughs spent the last ten years of his life. Back in 2006, I was visiting Lawrence trying to find Burrough’s house. If you’re not familiar with Lawrence, Kansas, it’s a small progressive university town. There’s the usual assortment record stores, boutiques, bars, and a venue where I later saw Peaches in concert. It’s a nice little place. Occasionally I would visit Lawrence. It was during these occasional day trips when I came across this small zine library. I donated a few of my self published titles at the time. Never would I thought it would end up in a university archive.

In 2006, it was the same town where I later got a small tattoo of the number 23, in honor of Burroughs.

Funny thing is, looking back on this now, I can see a million and one things wrong with my artwork. For starters, the lines should’ve been bolder. The cover itself still makes me chuckle. I had drawn this after walking around in Long Island City, Queens. My job at the time was located around the Queens Plaza area. There I saw a passed out derelict sprawled out on the sidewalk. The man had urinated in his pants as he slept, holding a bottle. The street hooker was from someone telling me her mother was a drug addict who used to sell her body for drugs in Long Island City. Of course, this was way before the current wave of hyper gentrification in NYC.

My drawing skills have improved massively since then, but for now, you can always read the back issue online.

The past weekend of April 2 and 3, 2016 was a good one. It was my first time back at MoCCA Fest since 2013. Like back in 2013, I had shared a table with two other associates: artist/writer E.J. Barnes and writer Paul Curtis.

This time around, I mainly focused on the latest WitchesBrewPress releases. Okay, my own self-published comics. Also on hand was my line of greeting cards, featuring Krampus, Lemmy Kilmister and Wendy O Williams valentines, and a steampunk Cthulhu.

Artist Rick Meyerowitz known for his work with National Lampoon. Gallery inside MoCCA Fest 2016.

Artist Rick Meyerowitz known for his work with National Lampoon. Gallery inside MoCCA Fest 2016.

Artist Rick Meyerowitz known for his work with National Lampoon. Gallery inside MoCCA Fest 2016.

Artist Rick Meyerowitz known for his work with National Lampoon. Gallery inside MoCCA Fest 2016.

Also on display inside the MoCCA Fest gallery was work by T.P. Moynihan. T.P. Moynihan was a self-taught artist who went under the pen name of “M.” He was also known as the son of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. “M” passed away earlier this year after a battle with cancer. As I was snapping these pics, his friend sat in a chair watching. Still mourning over his best friend, he got up and spoke about “M.” It was touching to hear his friend speak about “M” obviously a bit still shaken up about his death.

Went back to my table as I noticed lack of sleep creeping up on me. It had been busy prior to MoCCA, so getting shuteye was far and few in-between.

Scene from MoCCA Fest 2016. April 2016. Photo by Paul Curtis.

Scene from MoCCA Fest 2016. April 2016. Photo by Paul Curtis.

There was an after-party for MoCCA exhibitors at The Society of Illustrators. An awards ceremony taking place, along with a generous bar and dinner. The Society of Illustrators is located inside a townhouse on the upper east side. Various floors had different galleries and art on exhibit.

The main exhibit downstairs was a retrospective on Zap Comix. Zap is best known for Robert Crumb, but it also had work from Gilbert Shelton (Fabulous Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy’s Cat), Spain Rodriguez, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Paul Mavrides, S. Clay Wilson, and my personal favorite, Robert Williams who did many albums covers for Marc Almond and J.G. Thrilwell, and Guns and Roses.

Zap comics retrospective at Society of Illustrators for after MoCCA party. April 2016.

Next day back at MoCCA Fest itself. I took time away from my table to attend a panel about Wimmen’s Comics.

MoCCA Fest panel about Wimmen’s Comix. A feminist underground comic now available in a collected volume. April 2016.

On the panel was Diane Noomin, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Leslie Sternbergh. The long running anthology founded by Trina Robbins was discussed. What struck me most about this panel was when Phoebe Gloeckner discussed receiving payment from Screw Magazine’s publisher, Al Goldstein. Gloeckner had sold artwork to Goldstein. Apparently Goldstein wanted to pay Gloeckner in person. They met for dinner, and somehow the dinner ended by Goldstein taking out a huge amount of cash to be paid to Goldstein. He slowly started to count the amount of dollars he was to pay her, and then says to Gloeckner: “Now you know what it feels like to be a hooker.”

Hearing that took me back. While we all knew what Al Goldstein was all about, hearing this was still hard to stomach. It was like as if he was trying to demean not just her talent, but her as a person. When one hears recollections such as this, it shows how silly the current fourth wave internet pseudo-‘feminists’ really are. They don’t realize what women had to endure prior to 2016. In fact, disguised misogyny is what women still deal with on a regular basis. So while these current internet feminists complain about silly things, like shirts that scientists wear, or about a particular Milo Manara variant cover (Marvel’s Spider Woman, issue # 1, 2014), there lies deeper problems. Variant covers and pin-up shirts have nothing to do with real feminist issues.

Enough of the soapbox. I went back to my table at MoCCA. In all, despite my lack of sleep, it was a good weekend.